To The Praise of His Glory – Day 5

Med#5: ..to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:6 ..to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
More PP’s. Consider verse 6 from the Amplified Bible:
“[So that we might be] to the praise and the commendation of His glorious grace (favour and mercy), which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”
Here, Jesus is referred to by the title ‘Beloved’; and the JPP (Jesus prepositional phrase) is ‘in the Beloved’. Generally, Ephesians 1:3-14 can be divided as follows: vv 3 to 6 about Father; vv 7 to 12 about Jesus; and vv 13 and 14 about Spirit. This works fine; it is these numerous JPP’s that kind of mess with this neat breakdown. Read and see for yourself. All of the Spiritual blessings mentioned, whether blessings from God, the Son, or the Spirit, are in, of, and through Jesus.

Reflection Questions
1) Think about the phrase ‘to the praise’; literarily, how is ‘praise’ used?
2) How do you define “grace”?
3) How is grace bestowed on us?

Predestination- Reflections Day 4

Med#4: Predestination: too much to fathom?
Ephesians 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will..
We are, quite simply, predestined through Jesus; but, predestined for what and how? Consider the other PP’s (prepositional phrases) in verse 5 and again realize who you are and what you have as a believer.

Reflection Questions
1) Compare and contrast ‘chosen’ and ‘predestined’. Why both?
2) Does this fact humble you or compel you to ask for humility?
3) What does ‘adoption’ mean to you?

The Chosen- Day 3 Reflection

Med#3: The Chosen … ya, even you.
Ephesians 1:4 ..just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.
Here the JPP (Jesus Prepositional Phrase) is adverbial, that is it modifies the past tense verb, ‘chose’.

Reflection Questions
1) If God is the subject of the Bible, what/who is the object?
2) How do you feel about this truth: that you are chosen?
3) In what context were we chosen?

Blessed and Blessed- Day 2

Med#2: Blessed..and blessed.
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ..
Again, we see the Father and the Son in the same breath; but not ‘Father and Son’, rather, ‘Father of Son’. Also, not ‘our Father and Lord’, but, ‘the Father of our Lord’. Subtle differences that demand attention from this detail addict. And, the word ‘bless’ appears twice: ‘blessed be God who blesses us in the Son’.

Reflection Questions
1) So why the subtle differences?
2) Consider other PP’s (prepositional phrases) as well as ‘in Christ’: i.e. ’with every spiritual blessing’, and ‘in the heavenlies’.
3) What are some of your personal blessings?

6 Weeks of Reflection

We kick off 6 weeks worth of Daily Reflections from Dave Duinker. Every Saturday we will meet for breakfast at Highland Park at 9am. Here we will discuss and share our thoughts on the week’s reflections. Please let us know if you plan to come! Click the button to sign up: Week 1 Breakfast Signup


IN CHRIST or “Jesus, what have You done?”
A six week biblical study by Dave Duinker covering 30 meditations focusing mainly on the prepositional phrase, “in Christ”.

INTRODUCTION
Had I the discipline, I would have been a linguist. I love words, on their own and in their loosely ordered interplay, making up the English language. I also love the Bible. In this study called “In Christ”, I hope to stir you, reader, and bolster your understanding of the eternal extent your Father went to in sending Himself to bring you to Himself. In other words, “Jesus, what have You done?”
I am not a student of the original Biblical languages – although I have dabbled some in Hebrew, which I prefer to Greek – but it seems to me that the New Testament, being written in Greek, is polluted with prepositional phrases. Prepositions are those little words that signal position. Prepositional phrases are groups of words consisting of a preposition and its object plus other related words: e.g. in the house, over that bridge, at school, under his hat, in Christ. Through the following 30 meditations, I want to explore a specific kind of Biblical prepositional phrase: PP’s with Jesus as the object, which I will shorten to JPP. We cannot cover all of them in 30 meds, as “in Christ” occurs almost 90 times in the NT, and “in Him” 100 times.
So, get your Bibles, turn to Ephesians 1, and let us discover together what God has done in Christ in order to make us His own.

Meditation #1: There is meat in the greeting.
Ephesians 1:1 & 2 (NASB) Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus; grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
How many pp’s (prepositional phrases)_ did you catch in this 2 verse intro? I count 7, including 2 JPP’s, which will form the basis for this first med (med is meditation but could also mean medication, you choose). The first is ‘in Christ Jesus’, which is a pp acting as an adverb modifying the word ‘faithful’. Now, I approach the Bible in 2 ways: dissection and big picture. The former is a study of details which are ascertained through dissection; the latter is a stepping back to see the big picture, the broad themes and ideas. The first involves single verses, phrases and words; while the second involves paragraphs, chapters and entire letters. I prefer the first, if you hadn’t noticed, but both are equally valid and one should not trump the other. So, as we study these JPP’s, we will see that they have both powerful import on their own but certainly cannot be removed from the surrounding ideas and the bigger picture.

Thus, let us see the details and the big picture in ‘faithful in Christ Jesus’. Here are some questions for consideration and eventual discussion.
1) What does the tiny word ‘in’ mean?
2) Who are the faithful?
3) What is the difference between faith and faithfulness?

The second JPP is ‘from..the Lord Jesus Christ’.
1) What does ‘from the Lord Jesus Christ’ modify?
2) Why from God and Jesus?
3) When letter writing was a thing, is this how you might open a letter?

This first entry was a bit wordy – too many PP’s . I promise to shorten them for future posts.

Learn about Finances

On Oct 14th, we are having a financial basics class led by a CPA (Trevor Davis) and a successful businessman (Reg Dodd). Thwy will both share thoughts on how to best manage your finances and things they have learned from their past experiences. This will start at 9am on Oct 14th.

A Christmas Musical

This year we are planning to put on a musical during the Christmas season. We hope to put on 4 performances of it in December. We are looking for all kinds of help. If you are interested in helping in any way please reach out to Dave using the contact info above.

Alan & Sheena 40th Celebration

Use the form beloew to say thanks to Alan and Sheena, and to share any special memories you have. Loading…

Camps For 2023

Yeehaw! It is official! The camp season is upon us. This year we are having 3 camps. An overnight Teen camp from July 10-14th, a Kids day camp from July 17-21st, and a Rookie day camp from July 24-26th. The prices for camp are as follows Teen Camp- $200, Kids Camp $100, and Rookie camp […]

Discussion Summary from March 5th Financial Meeting

We wanted to share a summary of the many conversations that occurred during our Annual Financial Meeting on March 5th. This document outlines where we see ourselves as a church, as well as how we would we see ourselves moving forward as God leads us. Please take a minute to read through it. March 5 […]